Broken Glass
by WritingKoi
Summary: Sakura's mind has shattered, will she be able to repair it? And, does it really matter, if all her friends are dead?
1. Broken Glass

Broken Glass

She found herself standing in the middle of an empty, dimly lit room. The room was painted a dark color, perhaps a dark green, but she couldn't tell from where she was lying. The lights, located in the corners of the room, were very low, just enough so that she could see that she was alone. She couldn't remember how she got here. There was something odd about the room. At first, she couldn't figure out what it was that was bothering her. Her mind seemed to be working very slowly for some reason. Suddenly, she realized that the room had no doors or windows. Although it made her wonder how she got in, it actually did not disturb her, the way she thought it might. She looked at the mirror and thought that she couldn't see herself in it. Perhaps it was the lighting. She stood up and walked right up to the mirror. Still, no reflection. She reached out her hand, slowly extending a finger. Why couldn't she see herself? Isn't it a mirror? Maybe it is just a large piece of glass, then. When her index finger made contact with the cool, smooth surface of the glass, she felt a shock. Her mind started playing video clips of the death of her friends. Everyone she knew were all being slaughtered over and over again before her eyes. She knew at once, that those images were real, her friends were all dead. She felt sick. She tried to pull her hand off the glass. It wouldn't budge and the images felt like they were beginning to drown her. Her strength left her and she felt herself moving past her breaking point. "NO MORE!" She screamed. She ripped her hand free of the glass and it shattered.

She awoke to someone shaking her. "-ake up. UGGH. Wake up, idiot." The voice sounded familiar.

"I'm up, I'm up. What's the emergency? Who is hurt?" Then she looked up, into her own face. The same short, pink hair and green eyes stared back at her.

"You, obviously."

She just looked up at her twin, blinking. "Who are you?" She managed to ask.

"I'm you, of course. Well, technically I'm the real you."

"Oh, right," she replied, as if that made perfect sense.

"Come on, you have to put the shards back," her other self prodded. "Besides, I can't maintain a physical manifestation for long."

She could no longer remember how she got here, how the glass broke, or what would happen if she touched the shards. However, she felt as though something gripped her heart when she so much as glanced at the pieces of broken glass.

She clenched her hands, "NO. I don't want to touch them."

No response.

"Something…bad…awful…will happen," she added, lamely.

Her "other" self was silent.

"Did you hear me? I'm not-" She stopped as she looked up to find her other self gone. She glanced over at the shards and quickly looked away. Time passed, or at least it should have, she couldn't really tell. She looked at the shards again and felt her heart clench. As she continued to stare (mostly because there wasn't anything else to do), the initial discomfort began to fade to a dull ache. She inched over to the shards on the floor and picked up the nearest piece. It was heavy and cut her hand. But the physical pain was preferable to the images that assaulted her mind and the feeling that her heart was being stabbed by a million kunai. It was all she could do not to drop it. _Just picking them up is a monumental task_, she thought, _I can't do it. There is no way I can put all the shards back_.

"I can't do it," she choked.

"No, you won't do it."

"All I want to do is curl up into one of the corners and die." She dropped the shard and immediately returned to a state of numbing forgetfulness.

"Why don't you have the strength to fix a simple piece of glass? You have always been the weakest in your team. A burden."

She was pissed now. Clearly, her other self knew just what buttons to push to motivate her to do something. Clenching her fists in anger, she stood up and she stomped over to the shards. Quickly, she analyzed the shards. While she could no longer remember exactly what happened when she picked up the shard, she knew that it would be painful. That being the case, she should get the worst over with and go from the largest to the smallest. The large corner piece on top, probably fit into the top right corner of the frame. She braced her self and picked up the largest piece. It dug deep into her hands and she was soon covered in her own blood.

The images of his death assaulted her and tears began rolling down her cheeks. Her throat felt like it was beginning to close up. She choked a few times, before she managed to breathe again. She started to drop it, but stiffened her resolve when she remembered all the times he went through hell to get stronger. "Naruto," she whispered, staring deep into the shard. She gripped the shard tighter and felt one of the edges hit one of her middle phalanx bones.

Sobbing, she said, "For Naruto." A burst of chakra in her arms and legs let her stand up and set the piece into its place in the mirror with ease. Collapsing onto the floor, her heart felt oddly lighter. This time, she remembered how the glass cracked.

After taking some deep breaths, she propped herself up again. She was on a mission now. She touched the second biggest shard and recoiled. _Kakashi, her beloved teacher_. Always there for her, gently pushing her to do more. Taking a deep breath, she touched the shard and let his death rip out her heart. When numbness set in, she drug the shard out from under the pile. It was difficult, since she was bleeding all over it. He would have wanted her to keep getting stronger, to keep trying. She had to pick it up to put it into place, so she placed the edges into her palms and lifted. It cut deeper into her hand than the last one and she felt one of the tendons get cut before it hit one of her metacarpals. She practically let it fall into the frame.

More deep breaths. Again, her heart felt a little better and this time her head felt a little less clouded. She used some chakra to heal her hands and replenish the lost blood. Not much chakra left, she would have to do the last ones without healing. She grit her teeth, and picked up the next piece. _Tsunade_. And, so it went. As she continued to work, the pain dulled until it just felt like her heart was bleeding into her lungs so that she was slowly suffocating. On the other hand, she was thinking clearer. _If all of my friends are dead, why aren't I? Why can I remember each and every one of their deaths as if I had been there? Why didn't I heal their wounds? _

She picked up the last piece. It was a tiny shard. She didn't even notice it prick the tip of her finger. It slipped from her hands in all the blood. Upon picking it up again, she realized that this one didn't seem to have a memory associated with it. She put it into place in the center of the frame. She fell down, exhausted. _Now what?_ The mirror was back together, although with several dozen cracks in it, covered in blood. She began to ponder what she should do next now that the task was accomplished, when her eyelids closed on their own. She started to dream of a wide open space at night. When she looked up, the number of stars astonished her. Their bright light lit up the sky like fireworks at a festival. They seemed to call her. She wanted to go to them, to-

"Wake up! You don't have time to die!"

Jarred back into her body again, she looked up into the glass. "I put the shards up, what more do you want from me?" She moaned.

"Is the glass whole?"

She reluctantly sat up and looked into the bloodstained shards. "No," she said, disappointed.

"You need to mend the glass."

"Fix the glass? How do I do that?"

"With your chakra."

"I'm pretty sure my healing chakra won't work on inanimate objects."

"Not with healing chakra, with your water-natured chakra."

"Water, huh? Even if I knew how to manipulate the nature of my chakra, I do not have the energy and the chakra to do so. Besides, glass is made from super heated sand particles. I would need Fire chakra, not Water chakra."

"It is YOUR mind that shattered and it is you who will have to put it back together."

"That is supposed to represent my mind? Kinda lame."

"Just the part that's broken."

"Why is part of my mind broken?"

Her other self remained silent.

She sighed. _Fine_. She returned to the problem of nature manipulation. She was familiar with the process and had watched Naruto do his nature manipulation. But seeing and doing were entirely different things. However, she had used water to extract the poison from Kankuro. So, maybe if she just had some water to start with, she could use it as a centering point and conduit for her chakra. A droplet of sweat or blood would probably do the trick. Sweat was probably better, higher concentration of water molecules. Grumbling to herself, she thought that it was good that she had such a large forehead.

She wiped her forehead with her hands. The water beaded at her fingertips. She send a stream of chakra to her right hand, that infused the water droplet. Using the water droplet as a centering point, she expanded the water droplet so that it was a bubble around her chakra. She was now out of ideas. Everyone knew that chakra was made of energy, but how to turn that energy into water was beyond her at the moment. Water was an ever changing, ever moving element, and would not be held in one shape for long. Since she was exhausted, this was probably the only chance she would get.

She closed her eyes and thought about a giant bubble of water in her hands. Moving, swirling, and changing shape within, but contained in the bubble of actual water molecules. She peeked down at her hands. Well, she did have a large bubble in her hand filled with chakra, but it didn't look much like water. She decided to separate the chakra in her bubble from the rest of her body and closed her eyes again. _How can I get it to turn into water?_ She thought for a long while about what to do. She tried a few things that occurred to her, but nothing seemed to help. Since she was just about out of strength and ideas, she decided to do something that would be unconscionable otherwise: she let go of her control over the chakra in the bubble. She hoped that since her chakra was water natured, it should return to a water-like form when separated from her body. Didn't she always feel her chakra as a stream in her veins? She continued to focus on maintaining the water molecule barrier on the outside of the bubble. After a long moment, she opened her eyes. The chakra within the bubble had turned blue and was beginning to look slightly like water. She felt a wave of relief and then room began to blur. She didn't have much time left if she was going to finish.

"I'm not going to make it," she groaned.

"You've run out of time."

So, Sakura stood up. She braced herself for the faint dizzy spell she knew would come from the loss of so much blood. Carefully, she walked through sticky pools of her drying blood, maintaining her glowing blue bubble. She reached out to the mirror with her right hand and felt the bubble hit the pieces of glass and almost bounce off. It wasn't going in. She sighed. True nature manipulation is when you manipulate the shape as well. _If it really is water…If I put it on the top of the glass, it will flow downward and coat the glass_. So, she reached as far as she could up, pressed hard on the bubble, and let it break. It didn't fall quite as quickly as water, but it did slowly spread over the lengths of the glass as it dripped down. After awhile, the cracks glowed blue and an even coat could be seen over the whole length. But still, it was not mending. She closed her eyes and used the last of her strength to put healing energy into the shards and water chakra. She concentrated on healing the cracks. _No_, she thought, _not cracks_. Her eyes opened in surprise, when she realized that they were actually gaps in her synapses and cuts in her brain tissue.

"Probably my amygdala," she mutterd.

The mirror was finally whole again.

She fell to the floor on her knees and then sideways onto her right side, staring up at the mirror. She was fighting off sleep, which would probably lead her back to the plain with all the stars, which would be her death. As she looked at the glass, it finally had her reflection in it. But something was odd, the reflection was not mimicking her position.

"I knew we could do it, if I kept you safe here in my space." The reflection said.

_My other self_, she thought in recognition, for she did not have the energy to speak.

"You fixed the scars that the Sharingan put in your mind."

_Itachi is confirmed dead, that only leaves…Sasuke_. That one name held so much meaning, so much pain in it. She realized that he had been torturing her with images of her friends' deaths, breaking her mind before destroying her body. _But, why didn't he kill her and get it over with already? Perhaps someone had stopped him before he got the chance…_

She suddenly realized that she felt better. She sat up. Then, she managed to stand, on wobbly legs. Soon, she steadied and felt more solid. When she looked down, the blood was gone and her hands were unmarked from the shards. The glass was glowing blue and green. Well, mostly blue now, the green healing chakra was fading. She stepped up to the glass, her other self leaned towards her. She tentatively touched the glowing blue wall and, while still firm, it rippled at her touch. All of her memories returned to her in a flood, and she remembered how Sasuke had ensnared her mind with ease. And, how he had broken it with equivalent ease.

She had been naïve. She had been trying to convince him to come back to the village, like they both knew she would. All he had to do was wait until she looked at him with both eyes, while she pleaded with him to come to his senses. She was a fool, a weak fool.

She felt the urgent need to return to consciousness. She had to go help. The only thing that even vaguely looked like a door was the glowing blue glass. She leaned on the glass and it gave way for her. As she continued to push herself through the glass, she thought she felt her other self push back from the other side. She felt them both merge into her full stream of chakra and then into her mind where she plunged into her synapses again. She was drowning in a wonderful rush of sensations.

It was odd, she felt different than before. Whole. She felt the blue wall within her mind expand, thicken, and surround the delicate tissues of her brain. It would give, but it would never break again. With her mind now protected by her water chakra, she realized that she would no longer be susceptible to the Mangekyo Sharingan. _I did it,_ she thought with surprise. She had done what no one else could claim to do – she had beaten the Mangekyo Sharingan with her mind. She would no longer be a burden. _But, at what cost? How many of those images were real?_

Sensation from her body started to feed into her mind again. She was lying on her side on the ground. She began to feel her heart beating, felt a fierce wind brush against her skin, and heard an explosion.

She braced herself and opened her eyes.


	2. Waking Dream

For whimsicaldream, who requested a continuation. Sorry it's so late! Real-life drama prevented its completion. Hope it is worth the wait! This is only the first portion. (There's a lot more coming.)

I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. I just like playing in his world.

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**WAKING DREAM**

With one hand gripping a rock, she braced herself with the other hand that was on the ground as she opened her eyes. When the dust in the air settled, she could see Naruto and Sasuke on opposite sides of a clearing, facing each other with determined looks on their faces. Something was odd with Naruto's appearance. He had odd circles around both of his eyes - like double black eyes, except reddish. It took a moment for comprehension to sink in – he was in Sage mode. Upon further scrutiny, the clearing looked like a crater and had probably been created in the explosion she had heard. It looked like Sasuke had managed to avoid Naruto's attacks for the most part.

She realized that her left hand was not resting on a rock, but Sai's cold, clammy hand. She turned her head to look at him. His head was thrown back in a silent scream, his eyes were rolled back into his head, and there was drool seeping out the corners of his mouth. She almost screamed. He was also sweating profusely. His breathing was erratic and strained. _He must have been trapped in Tsukuyomi ttrying to help me_, she thought with chagrin. It was clear his mind had been damaged by it. She tried not to move much, so she would not draw any attention to their location. However, she desperately needed to know his pulse in order to determine the best course of action. She could flood his body with healing chakra, but it would definitely be noticeable. She slowly leaned as far as she could towards Sai and extended her left arm so that she could feel his jugular artery in his throat with her index and middle fingers. It was irregular and weak. It was bad, the injury to his amygdala must be causing some swelling. The only thing she could do for him right now was to put him into a medically induced coma with an injection of pentobarbital. It would cease all brain activity, saving him for the hospital's intensive healing sessions and later recovery. Then again, he would die without machines to keep his blood and chakra pumping. She'd need to move his body somewhere safe and summon a slug like Tsunade's Katsuyu in order to preserve his body. Another problem is that the pentobarbital is in her medical kit, which she could feel behind her back on the ground. She'd need to wait for them both to be distracted.

Upon slowly, subtly turning her head back to the clearing, she saw that the two fighters were still posturing. She wished they'd hurry up, she didn't know how long Sai had before irreparable brain damage occurred. Although, once he was safely away, it would just be Sasuke, Naruto, and her - like it should be. _We'll finally settle this once and for all_. The two rivals started exchanging shuriken and a few blows. She started forming a plan as she reached behind her into her kit for a syringe and the bottle of pentobarbital. Unfortunately, she only had a rough estimate of how much Sai weighed. She really needed a precise number to correctly dose him, but they would have to make due. She cautiously drew up what she thought would be an appropriate amount of the barbiturate, when she heard her opportunity to act coming. Sasuke's new chidori sword still sounded like a chorus of birds and it was causing the hair on her arms to stand up. Naruto would probably counter with a Rasengan or RasenShuriken. She quickly injected Sai in his jugular vein. He stopped moving. He would soon stop breathing – she needed to quickly summon a child of Katsuyu to prevent his death. When Sasuke and Naruto lunged at each other, she grabbed Sai's body and bolted.

After going as far and as fast as she could force her body to go, she stopped behind a large rock formation and took a few ragged breaths. Which one of Katsuyu's kind should she summon? One big enough to encapsulate and take care of Sai's body functions, but that hopefully didn't sap too much of her chakra. She bit her thumb to draw a drop of blood, made the hand signs, and used her chakra to summon Katatsumuri, the most protective healing slug. Exhausted, she fell back against the rock formation and watched Katatsumuri go to work. As she watched the lifeless body of her awkward friend and teammate be ensconced in healing fluid, she remembered all the kind things he had done for her. He'd always send little critters to help her out. A bat umbrella when it began to rain and she had to walk home after visiting Naruto when he was trainging. Mice to help her clean when she neglected her place when she'd been busy training and working at the hospital. She hoped her tactless friend would not suffer any brain damage from what she'd done to him. She wanted to teach him more about fitting in socially, maybe set him up with Hinata-chan. They would be adorably awkward together. It would never work out of course, because of her clan. Hopefully, it would make them both more able to interact normally in the social sphere. When Katatsumuri's hard shell formed over the two of them, she knew everything had gone well. She exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in. _What am I going to do now? I've depleted most of my chakra reserves just to get here. CRAP. _

Unfortunately, since she was out of normal chakra, she would have to break the seal of the stored chakra Tsunade had insisted she save. At first, it had been a great burden to store so much chakra per day. However, she found that after awhile it was like Lee's leg weights – you stopped noticing the effort they forced you to make. You adapted and grew stronger. She silently thanked Tsunade-shishou for forcing the seal upon her. Now, she could call on her carefully saved reserves to help with this crisis. Fortunately, her seal was different from Tsunade's healing power storage, it wouldn't take years off her life. Tsunade-shishou didn't seem to think that kind of seal was necessary at the time. This seal stored pure, raw chakra. As she finished the last of the seals, she felt the chakra rush into her body. She waited a few moments for it to establish equilibrium with her system.

After a minute, her system was reenergized and she was focused enough to form a plan. She knew she couldn't waste the element of surprise. Surely, Sasuke had noticed they were gone. Perhaps he thought that an ally had arrived to help Naruto. No one has even been known to break out of Tsukuyomi's grasp on their mind. It was considered impossible, unthinkable. When she reappeared, she would make for a great distraction. She needed to use that to her advantage. _What could she do in one instant? Inject him with a neurontoxin? Was he immune to snake venom after all that time with Oorochimaru? _After a moment, she sighed and grimaced. She was planning how to kill Sasuke, after Sasuke had already tried to kill her. It didn't seem real, like a nightmare she was having. She paced back and forth trying to think. She made her way back over to where she had left Sai and ran her hand over Katatsumuri's shell. She felt Sai's heart weakly beat a few times. The beat was very weak, but regular. He was stable. Feeling Sai's heart beat made it real. There would be no waking from this nightmare. She started planning again._ Sasuke had almost certainly noticed our missing bodies. He would probably be expecting someone to come back with a surprise attack. He's amazingly fast, too. The instant of distraction I could buy probably wouldn't be enough time for anything significant. But if he doesn't know I'm alive…_ All of a sudden, it came to her. She knew what she could do with her new water chakra. She smirked. Sasuke would never know what had hit him.

To be continued…

つづく

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The next two chapters are basically completed, but I'm still fidgeting with them.

Please let me know what you think of my work! I am always appreciative of constructive criticism.


	3. Disrupted Retribution

I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. I just like playing in his world.

Author's Note: Point of View Change

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DISRUPTED RETRIBUTION

He had killed too many people to keep track of anymore. He only remembered a few, the ones that meant the most to him. Oorochimaru, who thought he could be used - he was wrong. Itachi, his older brother. Itachi's death was both his crowning achievement and greatest regret. He was now the master of a new kind of Sharingan, one never seen before. Even Madara did not know the full extent of its abilities. However, he was most proud of the progress he had made towards exacting his vengeance against Konoha. He felt great satisfaction that he had made great progress towards destroying all the ninja of Konhagakure. So far, he had permanently scarred several minds of Konoha's best and killed many outright. He had been on his way to meet up with Team Hawk, who was out stalking two teams of Konoha ninja, when he happened upon Sakura who was returning from somewhere. Upon seeing him, she tried to convince him to return to the village, as she always did. Interestingly enough, it had only bee a ploy to get closer to him. She had correctly deduced that only force would bring him back. Even if she managed to bring him back, it would only make his retribution swifter. However, if he had to deal with all the ninja of Konoha at once, there was actually a possibility of failure. It was easier to kill shinobi off one by one or in small groups. _But, the gall. As if she has the ability to overpower me all on her own. When will she get it? She will never be a match for me._ Regrettably, she had made the mistake of looking into his eyes when lunging at him. Her eyes had shined with fierce determination. _Had she forgotten about Tsukuyomi and the Mangekyou Shaningan? Or did she think that he would never use it on her?_

It had been so easy. He almost felt bad.

When another shinobi arrived, he had expected Naruto or one of the others that had come after him. Nevertheless, it was someone he'd never seen before. Whoever he was, he looked very upset at Sakura's condition and proceeded to try to steal her back. Clearly, that one must be a new teammate - a _replacement_ for himself. That one had been a bit more careful. Although, he was just too weak to really make things fair. Those living drawings squished so easily. When grabbed by his head, that one had opened his eyes in surprise and sealed his fate.

He felt their charka signatures disappear. It was a little odd that their chakra signatures had disappeared at roughly same time, but it didn't really bother him. Tsukuyomi scarred the mind and was ultimately fatal without immediate intensive care. He had made sure to really torture his _replacement_. He was a little peeved that he missed that one's death while fighting with Naruto. Although, he was satisfied that one had been in so much pain that he had died so quickly. Having been ensnared first, Sakura had lasted the longest of the two. Remarkably long, actually. Nevertheless, even her mind had become too scarred to function after awhile. He hadn't meant for her to suffer until she died. Well, to be honest, upon learning of his replacement, he did initially want to increase Sakura's suffering. However, when her suffering hadn't brought him any sense of satisfaction, he realized that he still cared for her. He changed his mind. There was no need for her to suffer more than necessary. If he were to be honest with himself, he often thought of her like family. He thought it was fitting that to avenge his brother, he had to kill his other family. He had taken his katana out to slit her throat, when Naruto showed up.

He refrained from informing Naruto of their deaths. Naruto would only fight with more reckless abandon if he told him that his beloved teammates were dead. Making him both easier to predict, but more dangerous. Besides, Naruto would be dead soon anyway. They would all be dead soon. He was fortunate that Kakashi had already died in the fight with Pain. Finally, after everyone from Konoha was dead, he would be done. His revenge would almost be complete. He would just take the life of the one person left who had benefited from his clan's death. Himself. Nothing left to live for at that point, anyway. Only once had he wanted the end to come early, but had stayed his hand. The peace of death was only to be indulged in when he accomplished retribution.

He made sure that his latest clash with Naruto took him near their bodies, so that he could take one last look at one of his family and gloat over the dead body of the interloper. However, when the dust cleared, he couldn't see her. The bodies were gone. _The bodies are GONE_! He screamed internally. He desperately searched for traces of his charka signature of the person who moved the bodies of Sakura and his replacement. Nothing. _What happened? Where are they?_ It was beginning to make him concerned.

Naruto didn't seem to notice or perhaps he already knew what was going on. When he focused on their fight again, Naruto was still in his new odd form with dark red eyes, powering up something that looked like a Shuriken made out of the wind. Like a hand-held hurricane. Different from the extremely large Rasengan Naruto had tried to hit him with earlier to protect their bodies._ How many shadow clones had he made? How much longer could he use that power? _

He quickly powered up his chidori sword and sped up his movements. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he couldn't afford to get hit by something that dense in chakra. It spun wildly and uncontrollably in Naruto's hands like a tamed whirlwind. The two other clones disappeared. Naruto threw it. This was not like the Rasengan, which needed close contact. As he saw it coming towards him, Sasuke thought about trying to deflect it with his sword, but intuition screamed at him that it would be disastrous. He dove out of the way and landed on his left side. It exploded high in the air at an oblique angle to him. One of the tendrils hit his right arm, which ripped his skin and erased the chakra connections in his arm. He sucked in air, refusing to utter a sound of pain. He could no longer use his chidori sword. Sure, he could use his left hand about as well as his right with the katana, but channeling his chakra for such a technique with his left hand was more difficult. His brain couldn't seem to efficiently think that way to channel the stream of chakra for such a complicated technique. Taking stock, he still had his eyes and the use of both his arms, even if the right was agonizingly painful. He shut out the pain, refused to listen to the screams of his own body.

He realized that that thrown hurricane technique must be what made Kasanki, one of Manda's more tractable subordinates, disappear almost immediately upon lunging at Naruto earlier. He hadn't really seen what had happened. Naruto powered up something huge right before it had happened, but the large snake had temporarily obstructed his view. He cursed the fact that Naruto could use more than one. _How many could he use? It's a very high level technique. No more than five. Probably more like three or four though, depending on how long he's had the technique. How do I beat a technique that simply rips the world apart? It didn't even have to make direct contact._

When he looked up, Naruto no longer had the red eyes. However, he didn't look fatigued as he straightened up. Those attacks should at least have depleted a significant chakra portion. Although, Naruto had already used two giant scrolls to seemingly replenish his chakra. _Did he have anymore?_ Naruto's chakra seemed different while he had the red eyes. Naruto made more shadow clones and started to power a regular Rasengan. _Damn him and his great well of chakra!_ It was his biggest mistake in this fight to have put an extra seal on the Kyuubi instead of setting it free and then taming it, like Madara had suggested. It appeared that Naruto no longer relied on the beast's power and he had wasted his energy containing the thing with the seal he had devised. That, in addition to doing Tsukuyomi twice in a row, had weakened him. As he got up, still a bit stunned, he almost missed deflecting a shuriken that seemed to come out of nowhere. He instantly sent an exploding shuriken back to that direction to take care of the problem. Some of the shadow clones must be hiding in the forest. He'd have to make sure to watch for surprises. On the other hand, such a complex strategy was unexpected from Naruto. He had matured in their time apart. This time he felt the shuriken coming and had plenty of time to deflect it. Naruto also tried to hit him with the Rasengan at the same time, but he saw it coming with the Sharingan. Well timed, but not good enough. The Rasengan hit the ground behind him and created a dust cloud in the explosion. One of Naruto's shuriken narrowly made it past his defenses and nicked his damaged right arm. Good move, but it barely even drew blood. Surely Naruto could do better than that. _I certainly can_. "This has gone on long enough. Let's end this."

He opened his left eye and began call Amaterasu from the abyss within as the dust from the Hurricane weapon settled. He felt another chakra signature off to the side. Familiar. Ah, the person who moved the bodies had finally made their appearance. He was astounded that they hadn't tried to use the element of surprise to grab the upper hand. It was possible that they threw the Shuriken from before. It didn't seem like a very good strategy given his abilities. Perhaps they were very weak.

The figure is female. Surprising, she looks a lot like…Sakura. Only, this woman was standing with her feet planted firmly in the ground and calmly staring at him. Looking for a fight. He froze._ It IS Sakura. Why isn't she dead? Had she broken free of Tsukuyomi on her own? _He had barely survived it when Itachi had subjected him to Tsukuyomi, twice. Each time he had been rendered incoherent and psychologically scarred by it for a long time. It had taken him weeks to recover in Konoha's hospital. He had only survived two exposures because he had the blood of an Uchiha. _Even if she had managed to flood her chakra out to a point that she was released from the technique, she should have at least been too exhausted to even move. Her mind should have been unable to consciously function. Nevertheless, she looks ready for a fight._

_Impossible!_

He had a moment of doubt. Retribution might not go the way he had planned.

To be continued…

つづく

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Please let me know what you think! This is my first time doing a fic with a Sasuke point-of-view.

The last chapter has gotten fairly long, but will be out as soon as I'm done fiddling with it.


	4. Shattered Heart

I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. I just like playing in his world.

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SHATTERED HEART

Crouched on the outskirts of the clearing, she observed Naruto and Sasuke fighting. She was biding her time, waiting for opportunities to strike back at Sasuke. She had to be careful - only a few of the special kunai remained. She needed at least one of them to make contact in order to ensure that her plan had a high probability of success.

As she watched and waited, Sakura thought about their situation. It was like the legendary sannin fight she had heard about from Naruto. Fate had managed to find a representative for each of the last three legendary ninja that had faced off like this. She was the representative for Tsunade, Naruto for Jiraiya, and Sasuke for Oorochimaru. She vowed this time would be different. She refused to spend her life trying to track down Sasuke as he continued to kill off her friends one by one. The outcome of this fight would not be a draw - at least one of them would die today.

She knew that Naruto must live on to inspire the dispossessed villagers and rebuild Fire Country. Only he could do it. If the worst happened, if he was mortally wounded, she would sacrafice her life for his. She had already decided. She had watched and felt the technique that Chiyo-baasan had used to swap her life for Gaara's life. She understood how to use it - it was remarkably simple, really. The only thing required was perfect chakra control. You flood all of your chakra, your life energy, to the 8th chakra gate (the Death Gate – located near the heart) in order to replenish the life chakra of the other person that has drained back into the earth. This restarts the flow of chakra in the person who receives it. The receiver's Death Gate will close automatically with the flow of chakra and will restart the heart. On the other hand, it drains all of the life energy from the giver, since the 8th gate cannot otherwise be closed once it has been opened. She did not want to die, but she could not let Konoha's hope die if she could prevent it.

Finally, one of the kunai nicked his right bicep. She had meant it to pierce deep into his flesh, but the fact that it had drawn blood was enough. She leaped out into the open to make her appearance. Her arrival had definitely caught Sasuke's attention. Just this once, he didn't try to belittle her or pretend that she didn't exist. He silently held her gaze. After a moment, the shock and disbelief evident in his facial expressions were quickly replaced with his usual calm apathy again. Her heart constricted. Sasuke's sudden stop had also alerted Naruto, who was now bounding over to where she was standing with concern and joy in his eyes.

She had been so happy to finally see Sasuke, but she had also been sad to see him again still bent on revenge on self-destruction. Although she knew her feelings for Sasuke only brought her pain and heartache, her love for him persisted. Her love for him, like all love, was utterly irrational. However, she found that she didn't love him enough. She did not love him unconditionally. Her love for him came close to unconditional, but she had found that it had one condition: he could not kill the people she loved. Since he could not abide by her one rule, he had to die. In a practical sense, it was triage. You do not waste valuable medical resources on those who are almost certainly going to die. That way, more people can receive treatment and live. By killing Sasuke, she ensured that the people of Konohagakure, who she loved more than her own life, could continue to live. They would no longer waste valuable manpower looking for him and trying to prevent his attacks. It didn't make her feelings go away, but it did make doing what she had to do easier.

"I'm fine, Naruto." She said, flatly.

He stopped approaching. The way she stared at Sasuke was different. He could see it in her eyes that Sasuke was now an enemy.

"Let's go." She said, with her attention on Sasuke.

Hesitating a bit, he inclined his head in agreement. He had only recently discovered that Sasuke was determined to kill everyone from Konohagakure. A few weeks ago, Sasuke had noticed a weakness in their defenses as they were rebuilding and had exploited it. They found Iruka's body out in the practice ground of the academy. He had bought the genin enough time to escape. Even then, Naruto had wanted to believe in Sasuke. When they found the body of one of the students that didn't get away in time, Naruto died a bit inside. Inexcusable. The child had been helpless. Then, Sasuke had tried to kill both Sakura and Sai. Unforgivable. He had almost fell into a nine-tailed rage, when Sasuke suppressed the beast. He was lucky to still be in control. The only way to save Sasuke from himself was to kill him before he could perpetrate any more atrocities.

He would send a shadow clone over to Sakura's location shortly so they could strategize at a distance. _What was going on? _Although he was ecstatic that she was alive, Naruto had been certain Sasuke had used his mind destroying technique on her. _Where's Sai?_ He wondered.

Without warning, Sakura lunged at Sasuke with all of her strength. Oh, she knew he could see her movements coming with his sharingan. In fact, that's what she wanted. Naruto was just standing off to the side. Probably wondering why she was acting like him – reckless. This too was part of the plan. She wanted to look crazy and desperate. The last of the exploding kunai had drawn Sasuke's blood earlier. She had meant to pierce deeply into his flesh, but had only managed to scratch the surface. Still, it was enough. She had coated the tip of each of the shuriken in some thick water chakra, but had used exploding tag to hide its presence. Just in case. Now, if she could insinuate her chakra into his chakra system, she could take control. Consequently, she needed his blood pumping and his chakra flow moving towards his eyes and brain in order to do that without him noticing.

On the other hand, attacking and manipulating her chakra at the same time was much harder than she thought it was going to be. Naruto had made it look easy. Luckily, Sasuke seemed to be preoccupied with his thoughts and was just blocking her attacks. For the moment. She caught a lucky break when a right hook missed his head and hit the arm with her water chakra in the wound. For the briefest of moments, she concentrated on just entering the flow of his chakra. She willed her chakra to be more fluid, less jelly-like, and seep deeper into the wound. Still, entering was extremely difficult. Sasuke's chakra flow was just too fast and powerful. She wasn't going to make any progress like this. She was going to need Naruto's help to keep Sasuke preoccupied so that she could sit still and concentrate. She retreated to a safe distance and started to alter her plan.

She was glad when Naruto sent a shadow clone over. She explained what she had planned. She simply told him that she was using a new technique that was like Ino's mind transfer jutsu. She didn't have time for full explanations right now. That explanation came close. The clone just nodded and disappeared. She wanted Naruto to create about 15 new shadow clones. Two of which would look like herself and an injured Naruto. It would look like she was tending some wounds of his as the clones attacked. She would transform into what looked like just another of his shadow clones in reserve. She needed to be still to concentrate on infiltrating Sasuke's chakra and growing her own.

With the plan set in motion, Sakura needed an entry point to begin. She reasoned that Sasuke was trying to suppress the pain in his right arm, since most of its chakra points had been severed - like Naruto's arm after he uses RasenShuriken. It causes immense pain because it severs all the chakra connections between cells – like having all the capillaries in one's arm cut. It makes the person hit by it unable to use charka without intensive healing. In which case, he probably wouldn't notice if he lost all ability to use chakra with that arm. Furthermore, if the pain ceased he would probably just attribute it to his mind overcoming the weakness of his body. He never understood that body and mind need to work together to reach their full potential. Everything in balance. Hopefully, once she established a foothold in his body, it would be easy to insert her chakra where she needed it. Unless, of course, he did notice and cut off his arm, which is something Sasuke would do.

She looked up and discovered that Naruto had only made ten clones. It was good enough, but she was worried that it meant he was running out of chakra. She didn't know how long he'd been fighting. Switching with the shadow clones went off without a hitch, but she didn't really think Sasuke had been completely fooled. It was probably obvious that they were trying to draw his attention, but she was certain he could not guess at the true reason.

She sat down, closed her eyes, and cleared her mind. She concentrated on infiltrating his chakra network, leaking in through the outer vessels. While she felt more centered on her chakra's liquid form, she found interacting with Sasuke's chakra more difficult than she had previously thought. She knew that his damaged chakra system might not be easy to tap into because of the previous trouble she had. She expected the rush of foreign energy to reject and exclude her. However, she had not expected to face complete and total rejection of her energy. His chakra was naturally lightning and fire natured, and it completely rejected her water energy trying to fuse with it. Sasuke was entirely excluding her from himself again.

He was so frustrating! Her resolution began to waver. Another rejection. She was flooded with memories and emotions that began to cloud her mind. Then, she became angry. He was such an arrogant prick! He disregarded both her feelings and her techniques. Furthermore, she could not forgive him for the blood he had spilled. As her anger grew, his fate was sealed. Apparently, she needed the anger to push her through her emotional block. Her anger was reflected in her new chakra, both her blood and her chakra were boiling. She lashed out and smashed into all of his severed, open chakra vessels. She controlled it through strength of will alone. All of a sudden, she found herself swimming in liquid fire laced with electricity. She was in.

The electricity coursing through his system was bearable because water is a good conductor of electrical energy. The veins of lightning rushed through her energy, unimpeded. The real war was between their conflicting natures. Fire and water have always been opposing forces. Like the two of them, forever opposing each other's wishes. On the other hand, it gave her an advantage over Naruto in killing Sasuke. Unlike wind, enough water could extinguish even the strongest fire. However, fire cannot kill water, only change its form. Sasuke had already done that for her life. His betrayal had pushed her to be more and do more than she had ever though possible. She had completely changed because of him. The only thing left to do is see if she would evaporate in the attempt to snuff out his life.

Her water chakra was vibrating with energy. Hot. Boiling. The heat of his fire chakra was making it hard to control her charkra's form. She began to sweat. She could feel beads of water pooling on her skin. She slipped into a wider channel of his chakra stream. She strengthened her control by blocking out any external stimuli. She was totally vulnerable. If Naruto failed to protect her body, she would die. She silenced her thoughts and focused. She regained control. Although, it wasn't as if she could control HIS chakra, she could still only manipulate her own. However, it was enough. Like a parasite, she would work with the host's body system. She threw a chakra tendril out to wrap around his right shoulder. This would be impossible without her perfect control of her chakra and her medical knowledge. Once she had wrapped tendrils snugly around the weak chakra streams in his right arm, she tried to make his right arm give Naruto the thumbs up sign. Nothing happened.

She forced the feelings of panic back down and realized that her whole plan was based on a false assumption. Control of his chakra did not lead to control of his body. If she had had more time to think about their situation, she would have realized this earlier. She was so used to thinking that chakra and the body was too intimately connected to ever separate. Well, strictly in the considerations of a medical ninja, it was true. On the other hand, chakra is merely the energy gathered from cells channeled through the body. Being able to control that energy flow did not mean you could control the biological systems. For a moment, she had to keep herself from laughing. She had planned this whole thing without even knowing if what she was doing was possible. She could not control Sasuke, but then again no one ever could. Despite her limitations, she had Sasuke's right thumb emit a faint glow from a chakra point that had not been damaged by the RasenShuriken. She had tried to repair some of the other channels, but found she could not use healing powers in this chakra form. Although, it made sense that a chakra form that could be used to parasitize and kill another would be unable to restore health.

Naruto did see the thumb sign, but had interpreted it to mean that she had complete control. She didn't. He was thrown remarkably far walking right into one of Sasuke's attacks. She felt horrible, but at least he wasn't severely injured. Sasuke's chakra tensed and flowed. He couldn't figure out what was going on. He was probably wondering why Naruto walked right into his attack. Sakura had to break concentration to tell one of the clones that she needed more time. She did not yet have control. The clone crossed his hands and disappeared. Naruto sprang back to action like he had been caught off-guard from the attack. She could tell that without his nature chakra he was beginning to tire. She closed her eyes and blocked out the world again, so she could concentrate. She felt like she was on fire again. Even though she could no longer feel it, sweat drops traced the sides of her face from the top of her large forehead to the end of her chin. Just a bit longer.

Sasuke watched this unusual interaction between supposed shadow clones and clearly became suspicious. He knew something was going on. He started building and channeling chakra to his left eye. She realized he was going to call Amateseru. She used the time it took him to summon the technique to spread a long tendril of her liquid hot chakra straight from the shoulder of his right arm to his spine. As she began to coil around his spinal column, Sasuke began to call Amateseru. This time, she could help. Once in place, she quickly cooled her water chakra. Instantly, she felt as though she were in hell. She was being torn apart and burned alive, because everything around her was rejecting her and trying to push her out. Somehow, she managed to hold on. Barely. The connection between his right arm and the chakra now coiled around his central chakra flow was severed. Nevertheless, his chakra flow slowed enough and the water character of her chakra interfered with the elemental summoning of Amateseru. Hopefully, he just thought he was getting tired.

Sasuke froze. He knew something was wrong now. She couldn't read his mind, but when he grabbed his pack to apply the all-purpose antidote concoction most ninja carried, she knew what he was thinking. Unfortunately for him, it wouldn't work on poisonous, parasitic chakra, only biological material.

Now, with her chakra coiled around his spinal column, all she had to do is figure out how to force the opening of the Death Gate. She wanted to give him a quick death, she didn't want Sasuke to suffer unnecessarily. She should deal him a lethal blow, open the Death Gate, and release his life chakra for a swift death. If she could stab him in the heart, it would make it that much easier to open the 8th Gate. How could she get close enough to do it? She knew she would be unable to do anything from a distance that would fool the sharingan.

Should she enlist Naruto's help? No, no. She would not make Naruto be responsible for the death of someone he considered family. She was the only one who needed to have her heart shattered in this event. Her emotions shifted so wildly for a few moments, she felt like she might go crazy. It would be best for everyone to remove Sasuke from his life of pain. Her emotions settled. She formed her resolve. She knew what she had to do and she was going to do it - even if it killed her inside. Perhaps killing Sasuke would even destroy her mind like Tsukuyomi was meant to do, an appropriate end.

She dissolved her transformation and straightened. Her disguise didn't matter anymore, anyway. With his chakra immobilized, he could only used taijutsu. Naruto realized that she had finished whatever it is she was doing and consolidated shadow clones down to just three. She took out one of her longest, sharpest kunai and got in her favorite fighting stance. She had to make sure that she was the one to deal the final blow. Naruto probably felt the same way that she did. He would probably try to do it himself to save her the heartache. In spite of that, she had already determined that she would be the one to kill Sasuke. She had promised herself and, like Naruto, she never broke a promise.

She closed her eyes and traced her chakra's attachment points to Sasuke's spinal column again in her mind's eye. Double-checking to make sure each attachment was secure. It took a minimal amount of effort to maintain the connections, now that they were established. Although she still wasn't entirely sure she could move and fight, while maintaining it. She would just have to find out. She really needed more practice with the technique.

Naruto began powering up a Rasengan. She didn't have time to add her attack to his, before the clones disappeared and he assaulted Sasuke. However, Sasuke deflected it with surprising ease with his chidori sword in his left hand. She wondered how long he could maintain the chirdori, since he didn't naturally have a lot of strong chakra channels to his left arm. Sasuke also used the sword to send Naruto flying into the forest. Then, with a surge of chakra that overwhelmed her, he came at her. She wasn't prepared. He threw her against one of the trees on the other side of the clearing. She heard and felt at least one of her ribs break and was now having trouble breathing. He held her by her throat against the thick trunk with his left hand. Her left hand came up to grasp his hand, while her right hung limply at her side.

"What have you done to me?" He growled, with his katana at her throat.

She remained silent and looked straight into his eyes. Something no normal, sane person would do to someone who could use Tsukuyomi. He tried to use it on her mind again and she felt it bounce off the wall of water chakra encasing her mind. His eyes shifted to a new formation she had never seen before and she felt several stabs and then a hammer against her mental shield. The sensation was coupled with intense pain, but it faded and the wall in her mind held. Confusion and fury flashed through his eyes. Most of her chakra attachments to his spinal column had been severed or severely weakened in the chakra surge, but three of the most critical junctures were still holding. She might still be able to do something if she could only focus. However, the pain in her ribs was distracting and her difficulty breathing was making it extremely hard to concentrate on her chakra. When she had taken a few ragged breaths and regained her mental composure a bit, she strengthened her grip on his chakra as much as she could.

His blade sank a bit into her flesh, the threat obvious. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Naruto bolting to her rescue from across the clearing. This was her chance. Her kunai was still in her right hand. She leaned sideways into his blade as she plunged the kunai into his chest cavity with her chakra enhanced strength. Hopefully, it would work. There was not much of her chakra left. She used her whole body to force him to the ground. She had been lucky, his blade had cut deep into her throat but not far enough to cut the trachea or else she would have died instantly. She could feel the blood start flowing down her neck and into her clothes. It flow surged in time with her pulse. Not good, the cut was deep, but she simply couldn't spare the time or energy to fix it right now. He must have eased up slightly on the pressure in surprise. The blade was sharp enough to have cut cleanly through her neck with enough pressure.

Even a kunai to the heart would not normally be enough to stop Sasuke for long, but she could now work simultaneously from outside and from within his own body. She directed all of the chakra he was trying to wield against her to channels directed towards his 8th Gate. Concurrently, she poured the last of her own chakra into the wound through her kunai to try to force the Death Gate open. She felt it the strength of the gate wobble and then break under sheer chakra pressure. _Breaking both our hearts_. A stream of his chakra started leaking back into the earth as blood started to flow out around her kunai. When she felt another gush of blood from her neck, she absent-mindedly used her left hand to apply pressure to her wound to curb the bleeding.

Naruto arrived and stared down at them. Until then, she hadn't realized she was still pushing down on Sasuke's body. She relaxed a bit. Feeling her hand on her neck, she remembered that she was injured as well. She would have to make sure she got a more thorough treatment later back at the new hospital to prevent a serious infection. The cut had been fairly deep and would probably leave a scar. She kind of liked the idea that she would always have a reminder of this. A mark as permanent as her choice; a scar on her body to match the scar on her heart. Maybe she would take to wearing her headband around her neck. Or perhaps she would start to wear a face mask like Kakashi-sensei used to do.

The Death Gate was fully open now, so she removed her kunai. Blood gushed from the wound. It pooled on his clothing and began to drip on the ground. In addition, from the sounds of his breathing, it was also pooling in his lungs. He would not have any last words. She could still save him, if she sacrificed her own life. She considered it for a moment. Her heart begged her more rational side to relent - perhaps he could change. Nevertheless, she held firm. She wouldn't do it. She had already made up her mind.

Quietly, Naruto asked, "Are you going to save him?"

"No, Naruto." She replied, flatly. "I'm not."

She didn't know what Naruto was thinking, but he was free to interpret what she said however he wanted. He could probably tell she was out of chakra, so maybe he would take it to mean that she just couldn't use any healing chakra right now. She would protect him by making this hard choice. She wanted Naruto to continue to be Naruto. She would live with it. This victory was also a defeat. They couldn't save Sasuke. Maybe they never could have saved Sasuke from himself.

The flow of Sasuke's chakra dwindled to a slow trickle and then stopped. His whole body relaxed. Sasuke was dead. However, his heart was still mechanically trying to keep pumping. Blood was still flowing from the wound she made. She felt her eyes start to fill with tears, but she managed to restrain herself for a few moments longer. The heart would run out of biological energy to power it soon. With her fingers on his neck, she waited until she could no longer feel a jugular heartbeat before she declared him dead to Naruto. As she looked up at him and the words started to spill out of her mouth, the tears started to fall. She quickly looked back down at Sasuke's bloody, lifeless body. She tried not to be too emotional, have a bit of clinical detachment. She didn't want Naruto to think she was as weak as she felt.

She collapsed next to Sasuke's body, practically out of chakra and exhausted. She was numb and delirious from blood loss, but she tried to hold it together. Naruto sat down next to her, picked her up off the ground, and held her in his arms. She couldn't see him while she was still fixated on Sasuke's body, tears running down her cheeks. Naruto remained silent. After awhile, she wanted to know what he was thinking, but she couldn't bear to see Naruto's reaction or his judgment for what she had done. She had killed Sasuke, their teammate and one of Naruto's family. Suddenly, her right hand, that was on the ground next to her, felt several drops of water hit it. She looked down and noticed that the parched earth next to her hand had spots of wetness. Naruto was silently crying. They was both being ridiculous, trying to be strong for the other. He understood her actions and her despair. Perhaps he was the only person who ever would. She didn't care any more, she wasn't going to hold back or try to be strong. She leaned her head back into his chest and began to sob. Quietly at first, then louder. Tears continued to stream down her face. She looked at the sky, it was odd that the sky was so clear, the sun so bright, on this dark day. Naruto's cries began to join her own. They sobbed together for a long time. She didn't know how long they had been there, but the sun began to set before they stopped completely. All their tears spent.

Naruto had wrapped her neck and ribs tight with gauze and bandages soon after they had started crying, for which she was now extremely grateful as she lie on the ground. He had just left to gather firewood. While he was gone, she took out the scroll with the funeral pyre seal that Naruto could activate when he had gathered enough wood. The seals would enhance the heat and burn white-hot until everything in the fire was consumed. Finally, it was time to set Sasuke's body on the wood and lit the fire. She tried to get up to help, but the dizziness from blood loss made her fall back down. Naruto had to set his body on top by himself. He activated the seal. He propped her up against himself so she could watch. She leaned back into his arms as they silently watched Sasuke's body disintegrate into ashes and blow away in the wind. It didn't take very long. The seal was efficient. This way, no one could ever call him back to life through any jutsu. They need never face him again. It was also fitting to end the Uchiha Clan, the Clan of Fire, in a big bonfire. She thought that maybe Sasuke would have appreciated the gesture.

As she watched her first love's ashes disappear into the wind, she felt a weight lift off her heart. Her heart was free again. She surprised herself when she found that she had feelings for Naruto. They were completely different from her feelings for Sasuke. They were not as fierce and immediately heart gripping, but they had become almost as strong. She just could never see past Sasuke. She searched her memory for clues to how it had happened. At first, the feelings had been just a whisper of admiration that had turned into respect and trust. Then the feelings grew warmer and kinder. Seeing him would ease her troubled heart, she would feel happy and content. Moreover, they were continuing to grow in power and strength in her heart. Now that there was room, perhaps she would one day let him have her broken heart. She knew he would be able to put it back together and heal it - that was his special ability.

Naruto supported her as they walked over to the rock alcove where she had hidden Sai. She placed a hand on Katsuyu's shell and checked Sai's vitals to make sure that he was still stable. In a few minutes, they would set out for the new Konoha stronghold (a temporary place while the town was being rebuilt) where both she and Sai could get proper medical treatment. She was exhausted. Well, they were both exhausted. It would be slow going. They would probably reach their destination sometime after dawn tomorrow. They would take breaks, but there was no time for sleep. It didn't matter, she knew neither of them would have been able to sleep anyway. Memories just kept surfacing and irrational guilt still plagued her mind.

As Naruto gathered everything together, she took a deep breath and looked up at the stars. Even though it feels like the world should stop turning, life still goes on.

Her shattered heart, with love, would mend with time.

[The End] [Fin] [Owari]

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I am always appreciative of constructive criticism.


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